Happy reunion
<p>Dan Dolezal and Sheila, his pet emu that was found and returned to his home on Sunday.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Sheila the emu is back in her pen after spending weeks on the run.
Dan Dolezal, who owns the Camera Corral on Sherman Avenue, was at work on May 15 when he received a call from his neighbor saying he needed to immediately return to his Coeur d'Alene home. When he got there, he saw the signs of a struggle between two neighborhood dogs and his two emus.
One of the emus, Prunella, was killed in the altercation and Sheila was scared off Dolezal's property by the dogs. She had been missing for more than two weeks before Kaleb Maciosek discovered Sheila's hiding place on Sunday morning.
Maciosek found Sheila underneath the Veterans Memorial Centennial Bridge while he was working on an assignment for his high-school photography class. Dolezal said Maciosek approached the bird and Sheila met him halfway.
"He offered her some of his lunch and she took it," Dolezal said. "She just kind of hung around. I think she was happy for the company."
Maciosek called his mom, Tamira, about the discovery. Tamira had seen an article in The Press about the missing emu and looked up Dolezal's phone number to give him the good news.
"I zipped up there with a bucket of food," Dolezal said. "She was obviously hungry and thirsty, but mostly thirsty. Once we got some water over to her, she just went bananas for it."
The Macioseks own a horse trailer, and Dolezal said Tamira and her husband, Jeramy, were able to use an old access road to bring it within 15 feet of Sheila. Once Dolezal got a towel over the emu's head, he said, Sheila sat down and let the group pick her up and load her into the trailer.
"We did all that in reverse to get her back in her pen," he added.
Getting Sheila home took most of Sunday, Dolezal said, and he is relieved that he was able to return the bird he has owned for more than a decade to where she belongs.
"It's nice to come home and have somebody wandering up and down the pen," Dolezal said. "I wish I had the other one still though. They are very social animals. We'll see though - maybe I'll get another one."
Dolezal said after the article ran in The Press about Sheila, countless members of the community called with kind words and offers of assistance.
"I had one lady call three times who was in absolute tears every time," Dolezal said. "Another lady had her trailer hooked up and ready to go. There were so many offers of help, it's greatly appreciated."